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1994-11-01
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DocsBoot+ version 0.26ß utilities documentation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright 1994 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Introduction to the DocsBoot+ utilities
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are several small utilities included with DocsBoot+ for
your convenience or as debugging help. None of these are actually
part of DocsBoot+ itself, so they are grouped together in this
documentation file instead of in the DocsBoot+ documentation file.
Each utility has its own section, and all of them are but a couple to
a few paragraphs in length.
These programs are distributed only as part of the DocsBoot+
package and are distributed on the same terms as the rest of the
package. If you are not familiar with them, here they are (copied
verbatim from the DOCSBOOT.DOC file)...
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Legal stuff
~~~~~~~~~~~
By using this product (DocsBoot+ and the associated documentation
and installer program and utilities and the associated documentation),
you agree to the following terms :
1) Neither the author nor any distributor is to be held
liable for any damages of any kind from the use or
abuse of this program or its associated products.
2) Neither the author nor any distributor is
responsible for any damages caused by unauthorised
changes to the program or its associated products.
3) You will not disassemble, decompile, or reverse-
engineer the program or its associated products.
4) You will not tamper with the program or its
associated products in any way except expressly
provided for in the documentation or as implied in
the setup and installation facilities.
4) You will only copy and distribute the program and
its associated products as expressly provided in the
documentation for the program.
5) The sole remedy for any malfunctions of DocsBoot+
or damages caused by such are limited to a refund of
the cost of the program.
6) There is no warranty on DocsBoot+ or anything which
is included with it.
If you do not agree to ALL of these terms, you must not use this
program or any of the associated products. If you paid a distributor
for them, please return them and insist upon a refund.
Several trademarks from various sources were mentioned somewhere
in this document. Here is a listing of the trademarks and their
owners (any not listed here are still the property of their respective
owners) :
Trademark Owning entity
──────────────────────────── ────────────────────────────────────────
AMI American Megatrends Incorporated
BootManager International Business Machines corp.
CompuServe CompuServe corporation[?]
DR-DOS Digital Research corporation
Digital Research Digital Research corporation
DiskManager Ontrack research[?]
DocsBoot, DocsBoot+ Zac Schroff
DOSWatch Zac Schroff
ExtraDrives Zac Schroff
IBM International Business Machines corp.
International Business Mac... International Business Machines corp.
Microsoft Microsoft corporation
MS Microsoft corporation
MS-DOS Microsoft corporation
Norton Utilities Peter Norton, then later Symantec corp.
Ontrack Ontrack research[?]
OS/2 International Business Machines corp.
PC, PC-XT, PC-AT International Business Machines corp.
PC-DOS International Business Machines corp.
Toshiba Toshiba America corporation
VersaBoot, VersaBoot II Zac Schroff
Windows Microsoft corporation
Windows NT, WinNT Microsoft corporation
Toshiba-DOS is Toshiba's variant on MS-DOS. It appears to have
fewer bugs than the Microsoft equivalent, and it gets along with more
non-standard configurations. This is probably because Toshiba
anticipated the strange demands the unique features in some of their
laptop computers would provide. I have only tested Toshiba's 3.30 and
5.00 and found both to be quite good. I did use Toshiba's 2.11 for a
short time, but I quickly upgraded to 3.30. Toshiba's 5.00 seems more
like MS-DOS 5.00, including certain bugs not present in their 3.30.
Note that ExtraDrives is NOT the product Xtra Drive, which is
produced by somebody else (of whom I know little). ExtraDrives is a
program which allows more than the normal two hard discs to be
connected to a computer, and Xtra Drive is a hard disc compression
utility. Besides, *I* know how to spell. ;-)
DocsBoot, if anybody is still wondering after reading all this
about DocsBoot+, was a boot sector for floppy discs which would
transfer control to some other device (usually the hard disc) when it
was booted. This was written because I accidentally left a floppy in
the drive rather often at one time, and did not like having to
physically remove it and press a key and wait for another boot try.
DocsBoot was not very widely released, though it worked perfectly.
Simpler programs are so much easier to write properly the first time.
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
The DocsBoot+ NameVol utility
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Included with DocsBoot+ is a program which will name partitions
so that they have sensible names on the DocsBoot+ menu. Typically,
the DOS or OS/2 command LABEL will do this for a given partition, but
for some reason, they do not allow certain characters in volume
labels. For æsthetic reasons, I like lower case and some special
symbols in mine (For example `OS/2 Boot') and did not like the limits
placed by the LABEL command. Hence, this program.
NameVol will change the name (in the boot sector only, so the
normal volume label remains the same) of a FAT volume. It allows any
special characters which can be placed on the command line, and also
has the option of simply displaying the labels on all volumes which
can be labelled. The labels that NameVol displays (or changes) will
be the ones displayed in the DocsBoot+ menu.
Note that in order for NameVol to name a partition, that partition
must be formatted with a DOS or OS/2 version which recognises the
extended BPB introduced at about the time DOS 4.0x came out. It this
is not the case, then NameVol will say that the partition can not be
named, and will not try. If you are using a DOS version 4.0x or later,
or OS/2 version 2.0 or later, and you get this message, you need to back
up your drive, and reformat the drive with your current DOS or OS/2.
This will install a boot sector which complies to the extended BPB.
To name a partition with NameVol, simply execute the NameVol
command with the following command line :
NAMEVOL d:name
where `d' is the letter for the drive to be named, and `name' is the
new name for the volume in the DocsBoot+ menu. Do not enclose the
name in quotes.
To list the names for all drives which can be named, simply run
the NameVol program without parameters, like this :
NAMEVOL
It will list all the drives which can be named, and what the name is
for each one. If a drive can not be named, it will not be listed.
Note that NameVol does not work on OS/2's BootManager partition,
so if you want to change the name or serial number for that, you will
have to use a disc editor of some sort. At this time, the same
applies for non-FAT filesystems. Load the boot sector for the
filesystem to change the name for. If the byte at offset 0026 (hex)
in this sector is either 28 (hex) or 29 (hex) then change the bytes
at 002B..0035 (hex, inclusive) to the name you want displayed for the
partition (note that characters < 20 (hex) are translated to normal
uppercase letters).
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
The DocsBoot+ PartScan Utility
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a small program which scans the partition tables on all
your hard discs. It will operate on all hard discs, not just the
first two. However, due to the way it was implemented, it scans each
disc completely before it continues to the next. This tends to
distort the apparent order of partitions. In order to interpret the
output properly you will need to keep in mind that DOS and OS/2 (and
many other operating systems) load all primary partitions first, then
go back and look for extended partitions.
This is intended mainly for a debugging tool, of whatever worth
it may appear to be. I think keeping a copy of the output somewhere
near the system would be helpful if anything happens to the hard disc
partition tables. If you feel that you have some other use for it,
feel free to experiment. If you find something that might be helpful
to others, please write and explain it.
The reason for this little utility being at version 1.10, instead
of the same version as DocsBoot+ is that I use the code contained in
here for other purposes, so it is a later version. Basically, this
program has been around in one incarnation or another about a year
longer than DocsBoot+ has.
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
The DocsBoot+ OS2Fixup Utility
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have included, for the convenience of OS/2 users, a program
allows OS/2 to be installed on drives other than C: without the use of
IBM's BootManager (which OS/2 wants before it will do so, though it is
perfectly capable otherwise).
This program is a small batch job (*.CMD or *.BAT) file which
will modify the floppy based install. It will also patch the CD-ROM
install, but in order to do this, you must have a partition other than
the one you are installing to with some free space (about 30MB for
v2.x, and about 45MB for 3.0) to use as a work drive (and an
installation drive).
This installation patch, unlike the NTFixup utility, has been
tested reasonably throroughly. It has been found to work properly on
OS/2 version 2.x, and 3.0, but I have not tried it on other editions.
The OS2Fixup utility will describe itself if it is run without
parameters. Please read the descriptions thoroughly before running it
on your installation discs.
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
The DocsBoot+ NTFixup utility
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have included, for the convenience of Windows NT users, a
program which will move NTBoot to the NT partition and patch it so
that its primary purpose is to boot Windows NT, not as a boot manager.
Note that this utility will also allow IBM's BootManager to work with
the NTBoot faculity, making Windows NT installations slightly less
painful (and NT users probably need every relief they can get!).
However, due to the way NT behaved (or, rather, failed to) on my
system, THIS PROGRAM HAS NOT BEEN THOROUGHLY TESTED. I have not had
the opportunity to test it as I had hoped, nor do I intend to try any
further experiments with NT until I get a new version or find somebody
else who does not mind being a test subject.
The NTFixup program describes itself and its operation if you run
it without parameters. Please read it thoroughly before running it on
your Windows NT setup.
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[end of file]